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Mercedes unveils world's first completely electric semi truck
European car companies are starting to invest more heavily in green vehicles. Audi unveiled three more electric cars on Monday and Porsche added 400 jobs to how many it estimates it will create to make its electric Model E come to life. Today, Daimler revealed its milestone that wasn't in the consumer space: The first non-fossil-fuel big rig, the Mercedes-Benz Urban eTruck.
Hailo gets help from car giant Daimler to take on Uber
With ridesharing services becoming more popular by the day, car makers are starting to take notice. General Motors has already sunk $500 million into Lyft, Volkswagen ploughed $300 million into Gett and Daimler quietly boosted its portfolio when it nabbed MyTaxi and RideScout in 2014. In a bid to expand its presence in Europe, Daimler -- owner of Mercedes-Benz -- today announced a merger between MyTaxi and Hailo as part of a new strategic investment designed to take on Uber.
Mercedes' autonomous bus makes a landmark trip on public roads
Mercedes-Benz's CityPilot autonomous bus technology just got a real-world, long-range test drive on the streets and highways of the Netherlands. One of the company's Future Bus vehicles successfully followed a 20km Bus Rapid Transit route between Amsterdam's Schiphol airport and the nearby town of Haarlem, navigating through tight turns, intersections and pedestrian areas all without the need for human input.
Mercedes to show its Tesla-fighting electric sedan in September
It's no secret that Mercedes-Benz eventually wants to compete with Tesla, not just partner with it, and you won't have to wait much longer to see how that rivalry shakes out. The company's David McCarthy tells Motoring.com.au that you should see a concept version of Merc's Tesla-beating electric sedan in September, or shortly before the Paris Motor Show. Its exact specs are a mystery (even McCarthy hasn't seen it; you're looking at the IAA Concept), but it should sit in the Model S' price bracket and offer similar driving range when it launches, most likely in 2018. There were previously teases that it would be "dangerously fast," in case there was any doubt that it would be a performance-minded ride.
Daimler chief sees electric cars beating hydrogen, for now
Daimler may be hedging its bets with work on both electric and hydrogen fuel cell cars, but it sees a front runner emerging. In a chat with Euro am Sonntag, company chief Dieter Zetsche says he believes EVs are "more likely" to come out on top. Simply put, he believes the electric camp has more answers. EVs with long range and fast charging are "within reach," while it's still not clear how you'll make hydrogen both cheap and widely available. That doesn't mean that fuel cells are out -- however, their future isn't looking good.
Apple and Google surprise Daimler with their progress on cars
You'd think that the head of Daimler would have little to worry about from Silicon Valley right now given his company's technological progress, but there is apparently a good reason to be nervous. CEO Dieter Zetsche tells Welt am Sonntag that a visit to tech companies in the Valley left Daimler convinced that Apple and Google "can do more and know more" about cars than previously thought. That's no mean feat when Google's self-driving car efforts are still rough around the edges, and Apple hasn't even acknowledged its plans -- what do you know that we don't, Dieter? He's glad that the companies have "more respect" for Daimler's work than he suspected, but something tells us that Mercedes-Benz will be stepping up its game regardless.
ICYMI: Crowdfunded rocket, swimming robotic bees and more
#fivemin-widget-blogsmith-image-819313{display:none;} .cke_show_borders #fivemin-widget-blogsmith-image-819313, #postcontentcontainer #fivemin-widget-blogsmith-image-819313{width:570px;display:block;} try{document.getElementById("fivemin-widget-blogsmith-image-819313").style.display="none";}catch(e){}Today on In Case You Missed It: Harvard researchers taught a swarm of robotic bees to swim, propelling themselves through the water with their tiny little wings. A new Kickstarter project aims to crowdfund a rocket to the moon, if it can get funding up to one million dollars. And the German Autobahn 8 played host to a self-driving big rig truck as part of a test drive by automaker Daimler.
Daimler tests a self-driving, mass-produced truck on real roads
Daimler's dreams of self-driving big rig trucks just took one step closer to reality. The automaker has conducted the first-ever test of its semi-autonomous Highway Pilot system in a production truck on a public road, driving an augmented Mercedes-Benz Actros down Germany's Autobahn 8. While the vehicle needed a crew to keep watch, it could steer itself down the highway using a combination of radar, a stereo camera array and off-the-shelf systems like adaptive cruise control. The dry run shows that the technology can work on just about any vehicle in the real world, not just one-off concepts.
EV chargers that can talk to the grid being tested in California
The University of California, San Diego already has a healthy number of EV charging stations, but dozens more have been installed recently as part of a three-year pilot project. These new ones are not like the others on campus, see: they're next-gen chargers supplied by German utility company RWE. They're the only model in the world right now certified for the 2017 global charger standard, which means they can communicate with the grid in real time to determine supply and demand. Thanks to this "smart charging" capability, stations can recognize if electricity's needed more elsewhere -- the charging process will then be interrupted whenever that's the case.
Audi, BMW and Daimler are poised to buy Nokia's Here mapping
What little hope Uber had of buying Nokia's Here mapping service just went out the window. A Wall Street Journal source claims that Audi, BMW and Daimler have tentatively agreed to buy Here for the equivalent of $2.7 billion. A final agreement could be ready within the "next few days," the tipster says. The German automakers won't hoard the navigation technology all to themselves, though. Instead, they'll reportedly give other vehicle brands a chance to claim their own stake and democratize the platform. While Here already has a presence in about 80 percent of the industry, this would make it a true mainstay for in-car mapping -- companies wouldn't have much incentive to license map data from the likes of Google or TomTom.
Mercedes-Benz takes on Tesla with a home battery of its own
Guess what, Tesla: you're not the only car maker getting into the home battery game. Mercedes-Benz has unveiled a personal energy cell that, like Tesla's Powerwall, uses giant batteries to store surplus power from your home's solar panels and keep you off the conventional energy grid. The German firm is taking a more modular approach than its American counterpart, though. Each pack only holds 2.5kWh of electricity, but you can combine up to eight of them to hold 20kWh, or twice as much as a Powerwall. That potentially suits it to certain businesses, not just your own abode. Whatever you think of Mercedes' pack, it may be your best hope of getting some clean energy storage in the near future. With Tesla's unit already sold out through mid-2016, you may have little choice but to register for the Mercedes equivalent and wait until it ships in September.
Daimler and Qualcomm team up on connected car tech
Car companies aren't usually good at wireless tech, and wireless companies aren't great with cars -- if you want to make wireless-savvy vehicles, you'll probably need some teamwork. Accordingly, Daimler and Qualcomm have forged a partnership that should improve connected cars. The first phase of this collaboration will focus on bringing cellular data and wireless electric car charging to your ride. They're not saying when they expect to bring their combined efforts to market, or what comes next. With that said, it won't be shocking if you're one day driving an electric Mercedes that's always online and never needs to plug in.
Mercedes-Benz has an Apple Watch app, too
Apple Watch apps aren't all about sorting payments and getting notifications. There are plenty that play nice with your car, too. Following the likes of BMW and Volkswagen, Mercedes-Benz announced its own software for the wearable that provides walking directions to and from where the car is parked. Using the MB Companion app, Mercedes owners can also search for driving directions from the Apple Watch or and iPhone before they even sit down in the driver's seat. As you might expect, info like fuel level, range, maintenance codes and and odometer readings can be swiped through on your wrist, too. When it arrives this fall, the app will work with Mercedes-Benz C-Class and S-Class vehicles that sport the Command Online tech, and support for other models is said to follow after launch.
Recommended Reading: The making of a self-driving semitruck
Recommended Reading highlights the best long-form writing on technology and more in print and on the web. Some weeks, you'll also find short reviews of books that we think are worth your time. We hope you enjoy the read. How Daimler Built the World's First Self-driving Semi by Alex Davies Wired In case you missed it, Daimler built a self-driving big rig, and it just recently got the OK to hit the road in Nevada. The Freightliner truck, known as Inspiration, took a team of around 60 engineers six months to build. Wired's Alex Davies offers a behind-the-scenes look at the project, detailing some of the tech that's onboard.
Daimler is using EVs and ridesharing to teach teen drivers
The days of learning to drive in your family's ancient sedan might soon be over. Daimler is running a pilot program that teaches German teens to get around using electric versions of the Mercedes B-Class and Smart Fortwo. According to the company, an EV's smooth automatic transmission lets students focus on the traffic around them, not the basics of getting from A to B. They only move on to gas-powered cars when they're ready to master stick shifting.
Futuristic 'SuperTruck' doubles the MPG of other semis
The EPA estimates that motor vehicles contribute about half of America's smog-forming volatile organic compounds and nitrogen oxide emissions every year. And given that the average fuel efficiency of your average 18-wheeler only hits about 6 miles per gallon, these big rigs can be big polluters too. But this new prototype from Daimler Trucks North America, built as part of the US Department of Transportation's SuperTruck Challenge, sips just half as much gas.
Mercedes will have 10 new plug-in hybrid cars by 2017
After dipping its toes into the plug-in hybrid waters, Mercedes-Benz is ready to jump in with both feet. The automaker is planning to launch 10 new plug-in hybrid models between now and 2017 -- on average, that's a new green machine every four months. The only two confirmed US models so far are the 2016 C350e (above) and S550e, both of which arrive this fall, but Mercedes is promising that vehicles from the C-Class on up (including the GLE-Class SUV) will get the semi-electric treatment. Between these and pure EVs like the B-Class Electric Drive, you may not have to compromise on model selection just because you want an eco-friendly ride with a tri-star badge.
Mercedes-Benz unveils its vision of a self-driving car
Mercedes-Benz is far from the first automaker to experiment with self-driving cars, but it's making up for that in style at CES. Meet the F015 Luxury in Motion, a previously hinted-at concept car designed from the ground up for robotic transportation. Passengers normally sit face to face so they can talk more, and anyone can control the car through remote units and gestures (courtesy of Leap Motion) -- this is really a classic, luxurious carriage remade for the modern era, according to Mercedes. The vehicle even has color-coded LED lights on the front and back to let you know what the car is thinking. It can tell you whether or not it's in autonomous mode, or give pedestrians a heads-up when it's safe to cross. You probably won't ever see the F015 go on sale, but it's a good clue as to what Mercedes hopes you'll drive (or rather, not drive) in the years ahead. Aaron Souppouris contributed to this report.
Porsche and Mercedes want electric cars that can fight Tesla
German automakers aren't strangers to high-end electric cars, but they've typically focused on supercars instead of sedans -- a problem when Tesla is rapidly encroaching on their business. At last, though, it appears that die Deutschen are gearing up to fight Tesla on its home turf. Manager Magazin has sources claiming that Porsche and Mercedes-Benz are developing all-electric vehicles that would gun directly after the Model S. Details of these new rides are scarce, but they'd reportedly have a range of at least 250 miles. Porsche's car would be a smaller take on the Panamera you see here, while Mercedes has so far committed only to an EV that would compare to its E- or S-class sedans.
Daimler sells its stake in Tesla as its EV partner grows up
They grow up so fast, don't they? It seems like just yesterday (well, 2009) that Daimler bought a stake in Tesla to give it a boost and secure a partner for electric car development, and the German automaker is now selling that stake a mere five years later. According to the company, an investment is simply "not necessary" any more -- Daimler can cooperate with Tesla on EVs without needing a say in its finances. The sale is theoretically a win for both companies. Daimler will pocket about $780 million, while Tesla can attract a wider range of investors.
